An Albuquerque winery owner has filed a bankruptcy petition to head off the chance that his piece of a family-owned New Mexico winemaking operation would be seized and sold to satisfy a $4 million debt owed in a Lubbock bankruptcy case.

He listed himself as the company’s winemaker and owner of a 28 percent stake in the business in documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Albuquerque.

According to court documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Lubbock, Gruet’s three sisters hold the remaining shares of the Albuquerque operation.

In October, a bankruptcy judge in Albuquerque, Robert H. Jacobvitz, ruled that Gruet’s share of the New Mexico winery business, and his ownership in the family’s GFA Gruet-Guerin champagne business in Bethon, France, could be attached to help settle the debt.

Gruet’s current Chapter 11 petition has also been assigned to Jacobvitz.

Under a Chapter 11 petition, Gruet is asking the court to allow him to continue operating the business as debtor-in-possession.

The filing is the latest chapter in the effort to wind up a three-year-old bankruptcy of the Cap*Rock Winery, which has been held up in the aftermath of a botched auction in July 2010.

Gruet bid $6.5 million to buy the winery, but was unable to come up with the 10 percent earnest money needed to hold the deal while he arranged other financing.

In the end, he was only able to produce $100,000 and tried to walk away from the deal. In a subsequent auction, the Woodrow Road winery was sold for $2.5 million to San Antonio fast-food investor Jim Bodenstedt, who turned the operation over to his wife, Cathy.

Trustee Max Tarbox sued Gruet for the difference, and the bankruptcy judge in Lubbock, Robert L. Jones, awarded the Cap*Rock bankruptcy estate more than $3.9 million in damages plus attorneys’ fees.

Tarbox said a French court has approved conservatory seizures of Gruet’s shares of Gruet-Guein and the SAS Paul Laurent champagne business.

The seizures, similar to liens in American property law, prevent Gruet from transferring the shares or proceeds of those assets until a French court issues a final ruling on the claims.

Two large creditors are still waiting to be paid in the Cap*Rock bankruptcy. PlainsCapital Bank, a one-time owner of the winery, is owed more than $4 million, while Lubbock Central Appraisal District is owed more than $160,000 in property taxes.